Numbers 12:8

Summary

The verse presents Yehovah's declaration about the unique manner of his communication with Moses: speaking "mouth to mouth," in clear vision rather than riddles, allowing Moses to perceive the temunah ("form", H8544) of Yehovah. The passage closes with a rhetorical question rebuking those who spoke against Moses without fear.

Key words

• peh ("mouth", H6310G) — repeated twice in the construction peh 'el peh ("mouth to mouth"), a noun pair functioning adverbially to describe the manner of speech, without verb or preposition joining them beyond 'el ("to", H0413).
• 'adabber ("I speak", H1696G) — piel imperfect, first person, indicating an intensive or emphatic ongoing speech act attributed to Yehovah.
• chidot ("riddles", H2420) — feminine plural noun, object of the negated prepositional phrase lo be-chidot ("not by riddles"), contrasting the mode of revelation to Moses with indirect forms of communication.
• temunat ("form of", H8544) — feminine singular construct, grammatically bound to YHWH, meaning it cannot stand alone; it requires the following noun to complete its sense ("the form of Yehovah").
• yabbit ("he sees", H5027) — hiphil imperfect, third person, a causative stem verb describing the ongoing or repeated act of Moses beholding.

What the text says

The Hebrew opens with the doubled noun phrase peh 'el peh ("mouth to mouth"), a construction without a verb linking the two nouns directly — the verb 'adabber ("I speak") follows separately, attached to the pronominal suffix -o ("him", H9033) via the preposition be. This syntactic arrangement emphasizes the directness of the speech act itself, prior to naming its object.

The clause u-mar'eh ve-lo be-chidot ("and a vision, and not by riddles") uses two coordinated negated and non-negated elements: mar'eh ("vision", H4758) stands unnegated, while chidot ("riddles", H2420) is explicitly negated by lo ("not", H3808). The grammar thus affirms one mode of communication while denying another, structured as parallel opposites joined by ve ("and", H9002).

The construct phrase temunat YHWH ("form of Yehovah") functions as the object of the verb yabbit ("he sees", H5027), a hiphil imperfect verb form. The hiphil stem here carries a causative or intensive nuance beyond a simple qal "to look," though the grammar data identifies it simply as hiphil imperfect without further semantic specification. The final question employs yre'tem ("were you afraid", H3372G), a qal perfect completed-action verb, followed by the infinitive le-dabber ("to speak", H1696G) governing the prepositional phrases be-'avdi be-Mosheh ("against my servant, against Moses"), where 'avdi ("my servant", H5650) stands in construct with the first-person suffix -i ("my", H9020).

Differences between versions

The LXX renders temunat YHWH yabbit ("he sees the form of Yehovah") as "τὴν δόξαν Κυρίου εἶδεν" ("he saw the glory of the Lord"), substituting "glory" (δόξα) for the Hebrew temunah ("form", H8544) and using an aorist verb (εἶδεν, "saw") rather than the Hebrew's imperfect yabbit ("he sees / keeps seeing").

The Vulgate renders the same phrase as "Dominum videt" ("he sees the Lord"), omitting an explicit equivalent for temunah ("form") and instead making "the Lord" the direct object of "sees."